Talossan National Library

[markymark]

Since the majority of books related to Talossa are no longer being published, I believe that the establishment of a National Library would be a worthwhile initiative. Hopefully there are sufficient copies of these books remaining in print that at least one copy of each book would be available for Talossan citizens to borrow.

Legislation could be drafted to deal with the National Library and a National Librarian selected by some means.

A Cantaloûr administration would be dedicated to the establishment of a National Library.

Vote MN and get to read some great Talossan books! (Just one of many reasons to cast your vote for the MN!)

[Lord Q]

I think this a great idea in principle, but libraries need to be readily accessible to be truly useful. Sending the books through the post and remembering who has what would IMO be more trouble than it is worth.

I know there was a push quite a while ago to get all the books online. I don't recall the status of the project. Does I.M. still own the copyrights to his books, or was that something that was transferred along with TNN?

[markymark]

Although I appreciate your concerns, I think these can easily be addressed. Talossans who wished to borrow a book would be required to cover the costs of postage for the library. A simple card with the date the book was sent out and who it was sent out to would be the only things necessary.

In theory I support the idea of a free and public library, but in reality if a Talossan Library is ever to be established, small fees would be required.

[Xhorxh Asmour]

I think all Talossan books should somehow be available online

[markymark]

I also think that the books should be available online; however not all citizens have access to the internet. For example, I have been in touch with a prospective from Russia who has rare and limited access to the internet.

There are some individuals, such as myself, who would prefer to read from a real book. I find reading books online to be quite annoying!

[kri]

Good debate, and welcome back, Q!

> I know there was a push quite a while ago to get all the books online. I don't recall the status of the project.

My own take on this is this: We tried to do a sort of "national library" by putting all our texts up online. That has become problematic because of the quitters copying our copyrighted materials and generally plagiarizing everything we do.

An alternative is to post a large, obtrusive copyright notice and link to Talossa on every single page of our copyrighted documents (dictionaries, grammars, Lexicon, Berber Project, atlases, etc., virtually all of which were written by me.) That would make the works available to everybody and would (perhaps) prevent the plagiarist group from using them as propaganda for their own cause.

If the documents are put up in .pdf format, can they be stolen and edited?

> Does I.M. still own the copyrights to his books, or was that something that was transferred along with TNN?

Under copyright law, the copyright inheres in the author unless explicitly surrendered in writing. I.M. holds the copyright to TNN. Alas, the entire TNN archive is in the hands of the quitters. I.M. has not, to my knowledge, approached them about getting it back.

Ben

[Xhorxh Asmour]

Just like Marcüs, I also prefer to read real books. If Talossan books were available online, people who can't afford buying them would have access to them anyway.
But, on the other hand, we should have real books for sale, too, and I'd surely be among the first ones to buy them.

[markymark]

At one point, Talossan books were available for sale. Unfortunately at the time I was still an unemployed junior high school student and did not have the funds to purchase them.

It would be wonderful if Talossan books were still available for sale; however, I cannot see this happening in the near future. This is why a National Library would be so valuable. Of course, in order for this library to work we would require extra copies of all of the formerly published books.

The books could simply be exchanged through the mail, for a relatively low price. The library client would of course be required to pay for all of the necessary postage.

[Xhorxh Asmour]

Getting additional copies printed is not THAT expensive.
Here in Recife there are people who could do that quite cheaply!

[kri]

Azul,

I agree, having books available for purchase is a good idea. Now that the National Archives are back in our possession, there is no reason we can't do this. I'll have to look through the materials at hand.

Language materials are a bit problematic right now because of the gigantic supplement being prepared (which has rendered a few hundred older, unused words superfluous). As for history, I have been distributing paper copies of Ar Pats. Márcüs, if you would send me the contact info on this Russian fellow, I can try communicating with him and if he's serious, I could send him a copy.

Other works include the Berber Project, the Lexicon of Talossan English, the Historical Atlas of Talossa, and the History of the Kingdom of Talossa (HOTKOT), the complete, detailed history from 1979 to 1990.

Ben

[markymark]

If copies of books are ever published again, I would be more than willing to purchase some or even all of them!

I also remember some other books...one of them I think was titled, "Front Page Talossa."

[kri]

Quite right, "Front Page Talossa" is an assemblage of front pages from Støtanneu and other newspapers, covering the whole history of Talossa from 1979 to 1997 or so.

Ben